In a final address, @JusticeATR Makan Delrahim says some of the changes recommended by House Judiciary are "quite sensible." DOJ needs more funding for antitrust, and he backs higher filing fees for mergers.

Supreme Court hears the writ petition filed by CPI Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam @BinoyViswam1 seeking data protection measures for Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Krishnan Venugopal for Binoy Viswam : The system of Whatsapp is not secure. Whatsapp is using the platform of the messenger service to allow payments.

#SupremeCourt

Krishnan Venugopal refers to the 'Pegasus' issue to argue that Whatsapp's system is not safe and secure.

#SupremeCourt

Krishnan Venugopal : Another issue is data localization. Problem with whatsapp, amazon & google is that when they allow payment to happen, data goes abroad. RBI justifies this process by saying that it is fine for data of Indians to go abroad without any formal protection.

Krishnan Venugopal : Critical financial data is allowed to be accessed by companies abroad and RBI justifies it. This is violation of Privacy judgment as my data is being grossly misused as these companies then collect this data and use it for advertisement purposes.

#BombayHighCourt begins hearing the plea of Lawyers Collective challenging the summons issued by ED for appearance of Sr Adv Anand Grover before them in the capacity of the trustee of the NGO.

@LCHIVWRI
@IJaising
@dir_ed

Bench of Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik ask ASG Anil Singh where the other Sr Advs are.

ASG: Milords had this been physical hearing, I would have located them, it is difficult during virtual hearing.

All Laugh.

Court states that the officers of ED are willing to come to Mumbai to carry out interrogation and they can proceed with the interrogation subject to the outcome of the plea.

Sr Adv Amit Desai asks the court to note certain facts from the plea.

Desai submits that ED has claimed they do not have certain documents with them. We have submitted those records, these are public records, but we will provide them with whatever additional documents they want.

Desai: So I am submitting that those documents can be sent to the ED, they can go through the documents and then take further course of action.

1/ I want to briefly tease out Cruz's statement, which will help set expectations about what might happen January 6:

2/ At its heart, the presser states, "we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given' and ‘lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless & until that emergency 10-day audit is completed."

3/ How does a10-day emergency audit happen? Congress would need to enact a statute to amend the Electoral Count Act before January 6, when it's compelled by law to meet. That seems unlikely.

4/ Cruz et al. seem to hold a "thick" view of the Electoral Count Act, adhering to the "statutory requisite," which means that Congress would need to amend or adhere to the statute.

5/ A 10-day audit is impossible under the current statute. Objections to a state are limited to 2 hours' debate. Adjournments are fixed in the statute, too--no recess if you've hit five days: